James R. Pratt was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1804. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for two years, but left before graduating. Pratt moved to Kentucky and studied law at Transylvania University in Lexington
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He was admitted to the bar in 1825 and began practicing law in Paris, Kentucky. It was not long before he became very successful in that profession, but when his money ran out, he decided to practice medicine instead. Pratt lived for a year with the Cherokees along the Tennessee River.
He then returned to Paris where he opened a private school for Indian children. His medical practice grew so rapidly that he gradually gave up his legal practice and devoted himself full-time to medicine. After retiring from medicine, Pratt continued to write and publish stories in his newspaper, The Post-Herald Star.
Pratt died on August 27, 1852, in Paris after being ill for several weeks.